Get The Girl
by diatribecalledquest
Summary: A post 3x09 reunion fic. Oliver thought getting backing to Felicity would be the hard part, but it turns out the fight for her has just begun.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I've been reading a lot of post-3x09 fanfic to hold me over during the mid-season break, and as much as it warms my Olicity-shipping heart, I don't think the reunion is going to be as smooth and fluffy. Though I hope they end up together by the S3 finale, I doubt the writers are going to be so quick about it. Which I'm totally down with, especially since Oliver's been kind of a jerk to Felicity all season except for 3x08 and 3x09. I want to see him try to earn her love. Don't you think our girl deserves a little wooing?**

**With that in mind, here's what's been bumping around in my head. Angsty, but ultimately hopeful.**

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His boots clattered noisily down the metal stairs as he rushed to her. He'd waited so many weeks for this moment, his feet couldn't carry him as fast as he wanted to go. It wasn't until he saw her that he stopped up short at the bottom of the staircase. She was alone, her back to him as she faced her desk, her computer screens casting a soft glow around her like a halo.

"You did good tonight, Roy. You really had Black Canary's back," she said without turning around.

"It's not Roy," he responded softly. "And who's Black Canary?"

Her chair crashed into her desk loudly when she jumped out of it and spun around, freezing as she took him in. Her eyes were saucers behind her glasses and he willed himself not to move, letting her take as long as she needed to process.

That all changed the second she balled up her fists and shoved them to her forehead, gasping ,"No, no, no! I am NOT going crazy." She took a big gulp of air and lifted her head to the sky, whimpering, "Please don't let me be going crazy."

He crossed the distance between them in three long strides, holding his hands out to graze her upper arms but stopping himself before he made contact.

"Felicity, it's ok. Open your eyes."

She shook her head as she kept them squeezed tight, and he barely heard her next words even though he was standing right in front of her.

"You're just a hallucination."

He huffed out a breath that made a noise somewhere between a frustrated sigh and a chuckle.

"I assure you, I'm not," he said gently.

She took deep breath before opening her eyes, blinking rapidly as if she was having trouble focusing.

"A dream?" she asked, her voice breaking.

"I'm here, Felicity. I'm really here." He couldn't stop himself then. His hands ghosted over her shoulders before coming to rest on her cheeks. He gently tilted her face up and leaned down until his lips were touching hers. He paused for a moment, letting the memory of their first kiss wash over him. Despite all the times he replayed that kiss in his head these past few weeks, her lips were even softer than he'd remembered. Just then, she moved beneath him, to gasp, to speak — he wasn't sure. But when her lips parted he lost himself, deepening the kiss and feeling the heat in his belly as his tongue finally brushed against hers.

Her hands were tentatively resting on his wrists, and when he tilted her head to get a better angle she dropped them to his chest, clutching at his shirt before letting them roam up and down his torso. When she looped her arms under his and began trailing her fingernails down his back, he couldn't stop himself from reaching down and hoisting her up by her thighs.

They were interrupted by the team's loud arrival on the stairs. "Were you able to trace the...whoa." Roy stopped short at the scene before him, causing Digg and then Laurel to bump into his back.

Oliver barely had time to put Felicity down before they all came running down the stairs. The foundry walls echoed with their excited shouts as they launched themselves at him. Felicity went to move out of the way but he reached down and grabbed her hand, never letting go as Roy approached first, pulling him into a bear hug. Diggle was next, reaching out to shake Oliver's hand with tears in eyes.

"Don't ever do that again, man," he said with a smile as he grasped Oliver's shoulder.

"Deal," Oliver smiled back as Digg stepped out of the way for Laurel, who wasted no time flinging her arms around Oliver's neck. He wrapped his free hand around her back and smiled into her hair before whispering, "Um, what exactly are you wearing?"

Laurel laughed before pulling away to wipe the tears from her eyes. It was only then that Oliver felt Felicity's fingers flexing in his. He looked down at their hands and realized she had been trying — without luck — to wiggle out of his firm grasp.

"Hey," he said with concern, trying to catch her eye but her gaze only reached the middle of his chest. "You ok?"

"I-I think I just need to sit down for a minute." She'd barely gotten the words out before he practically carried her back to her chair and was crouching down in front of her, looking up at her with worry.

"Just take deep breaths for me, ok?" he urged.

After a few quiet minutes, Digg cleared his throat loudly and Oliver glanced up to see the rest of his team standing around the med table, staring at him expectantly. He looked once more at Felicity, who gave him an almost imperceptible nod, before he pushed off her armrests and turned to face the group. They deserved an explanation.

He told them everything he knew, everything he remembered. How he'd fought with Ra's, how easily and quickly he was overpowered, how he was sliced with a sword and kicked off a mountain ledge, how he woke up in a pool of murky green liquid with Malcolm Merlyn standing over him, how his body healed in days but his mind took weeks, thrashing against sanity until he was finally able to remember them. Remember _her_.

They peppered him with questions but Felicity stayed silent in her chair. It wasn't until he was trying to answer Laurel's queries about the Lazarus Pit that she slowly stood up and walked over to the table, shaking her head.

"No. You're not making any sense, Oliver."

Roy smirked. "Wait, you're telling me you have no problem believing in meta-humans and superpowers but you draw the line at the Fountain of Youth?"

Felicity leveled him with a stare. "The Flash's super speed is a possible future stage in evolution, jump-started by a dark matter-powered, particle accelerator-assisted lightening bolt. This, what we're talking about here? This is...make believe."

Oliver smiled as he reached into his thin messenger bag to retrieve an item. "I figured you'd be the hardest one to convince. That's why I brought you back a sample."

She reached for the small vial eagerly, staring at the bright green liquid with a frown. "Huh. A chemical blend that creates this type of phosphorescence must contain some sort of strontium aluminate. Combine that with an algal bloom..."

Her voice trailed off as she turned back to her computers, already lost to the group as the wheels began to turn.

He stared at the back of her head as a slow smile spread across his face. _God, he loved this woman._

He was brought back to the present when Diggle asked him once again about Merlyn's possible motives. He did his best to turn his focus back to the conversation at hand. He tried to sum up everything he knew, everything he'd learned or theorized over the past few weeks. He owed them that. Even if every molecule in his body was screaming out to focus on something else, someone else.


	2. Chapter 2

Finally, after all explanations and theories were as exhausted as they felt, the rest of the team offered another round of hugs and handshakes before filing out. Oliver looked over at Felicity, who still hadn't turned away from her computers. He knew she'd been listening, though; he'd heard her fingers still on her keyboard during the tougher moments of the conversation.

He willed himself to stay silent. He wanted her to come to him in her own time, on her own terms.

That lasted about seven minutes.

Unable to take her silence a second longer, he pushed himself off the med table and slowly approached her. "Felicity?"

She stopped typing and turned in his direction, keeping her head tilted slightly down. It was then that he let his eyes rake over her body, allowing himself to fully take her in. He hadn't noticed the dark circles under her eyes before, visible even beneath her glasses. Instead of the high, perky ponytail she usually wore, her hair was much less polished and pulled back lower on her neck, like it was when he first met her. She wore a simple sleeveless white blouse and pants that were charcoal gray, a color he associated more with Laurel than her. He didn't even have a chance to take in her sensible black pumps because his eyes stopped at her fingers, which were currently twisting in her lap. He didn't notice it before when they were holding hands but now he saw that her nails were bare, the brightly colored polish she usually wore long scraped off.

"Yeah?" she asked, breaking him out of his reverie.

"It's just," he cleared his throat. _God, if she would just look into his eyes he'd be sane._ "You've been working up that sample for the past two hours. I thought maybe you could use a break."

A small crease appeared on her forehead and she looked at the vial sitting next to her keyboard as if she'd forgotten it was there. "Oh. Um, that's not what I was working on."

He sighed inwardly. Was there another threat to the city already? He'd just gotten back. He'd just gotten _her_ back. But if this is what she needed to focus on to restore equilibrium, to fully settle into the knowledge that he'd returned, he'd do it.

"Ok, what did you find?" he asked, hoping he'd kept his voice light as he stepped closer to look at her screen.

"Nothing," she said as she quickly pulled a USB drive from the side of her computer and stood up, nearly catching him off balance. She held it out in front of her, still not meeting his gaze.

"What's this?" he asked uncertainly.

"It's...everything." If she felt the same shock of electricity that coursed through his body when their fingers briefly brushed as he took the drive, she didn't show it. She moved to the other side of her desk and reached for her coat, pulling it on.

She opened her mouth and it all came out in a rush so fast he could barely register it. "It's passwords, the security system schematics, instructions on how to use my programs for facial recognition, traffic cams, cellphone tracking. It's every piece of code I could find that I wrote while I was down here. It's everything you'll need."

He paused. His brain couldn't keep up with what she was trying to tell him. "Why will I need this?"

She took a deep breath and picked up her purse before turning back to him. Her gaze still hovered somewhere around his chest, his heart.

"For if I'm not...when I'm not here."

He knew. He knew what she was saying but he still needed to hear the words out loud.

"Felicity." He wished it didn't come out so much like a prayer.

"I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry — I just can't," she whispered, her voice breaking on the last word. She took off her glasses and ran a hand over her eyes.

No, no, no. He didn't know if "this" meant the crusade or the team or him but — no.

"I was..." he tried to control his emotions, tried to figure out how explain why he hadn't come back sooner in a way she would accept. Could she still really not know how he felt about her? "I DIED, Felicity."

"I know. And a piece of me died, too" she said quietly. "A big piece, I think."

She'd finally lifted her gaze to meet his. The sadness that filled her big blue eyes was familiar to him. But there was something else, something he'd never seen in her before. The brightness and light that he always cherished, that he would seek out across from a crowded gala or boardroom, was no longer there. Instead she looked haunted, hollow.

She gave a weak, watery laugh. "Can't say you didn't warn me. You once told me that this life you've chosen can only end one way. You were right. You're still right. And I still can't wait down here for it to happen. I won't survive it again. I know that now."

"No, listen to me." He had to make her see. "Everything I said before was wrong. I was an idiot for pushing you away. I-"

She lifted a hand up, cutting him off.

"I'm with Ray now. He was...good to me when I was going through all of this. I'm sorry but I just can't."

He felt like he'd been stabbed all over again. He barely registered the way her hand hovered over his chest hesitantly before she placed it there, using it to steady herself as she reached up on her toes to press her lips to his cheek. "I love you. And I'll always be there if you need help but not like this. Not anymore. I'm sorry," she whispered before turning around and hurrying out.

Time stood still. He didn't know if it was minutes or hours before he came to his senses, the sound of his own breathing bringing him back. He replayed the entire conversation in his head again, wondering what he could have said to change her mind when suddenly it hit him. A sharp laugh bubbled up from his chest.

_She told me she loves me._

And just like that, he understood what he had to do. The League, Merlyn, the city — it could all wait. He had a new mission, maybe the most important one of his life. He had to prove what he once said to Barry Allen was wrong. _He had to get the girl._

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**A/N: Thanks for reading, guys! This was actually my very first fic and I don't really have time to do more. I just had to quickly get this one episode idea out of my head, so if anyone else wants to take this and run with it, be my guest!**


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